Meanwhile,

Somebody's talkin' 'bout real money.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will ask for another $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior administration official said Friday.

The requests Monday, to accompany President Bush's budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, would bring the total appropriations for 2007 to about $170 billion, with a slight decline the following year.

That would make the budget for 2007 and 2008 alone come to a little bit more than twenty-one-and-a-half Big Digs. And while that huge, mismanaged project plagued by contractor corruption and cost-overruns has also resulted in a tragic death, at least the people of Boston can get to the airport.